RNC CHAIRMAN REINCE PRIEBUS, to CBS’s Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation,” on tomorrow’s release of the party’s post-election review: “[F]or the first time in our party's history, we're not talking about having a few people down the hallway working on outreach and inclusion. We're going to be announcing a $10 million initiative just this year, which will include hundreds of people, paid, across the country … -- Hispanic, African American, Asian communities -- talking about our party, talking about our brand, … going to community events, going to swearing-in ceremonies, being a part of the community on an ongoing basis, paid for by the Republican National Committee, to make the case for our party and our candidates. …

“[O]ne of the reasons why Mitt Romney was a sitting duck for two months over the summer is under the campaign finance law, he couldn't use money he had already raised until after he received nomination for president in August. I believe that our primary process is way too long. I think our calendar needs to be looked at. I think our debate calendar needs to be shrunk. I think we had way too many debates with our candidates slicing and dicing each other and I think they had to wait too long to get to the convention. I’m calling for a convention in June or July. We’re going to set up a commission that's going to make that decision. I’m going to be a part of that. I’m going to chair that commission, but no more August conventions.”

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SPEAKER BOEHNER, to ABC’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week,” on whether the grand bargain is dead: “I don't know whether we can come to a big agreement. If we do, it'll be between the two parties on Capitol Hill. I believe that it's time to do regular order. … The president got his tax hikes on January the 1st. The talk about raising revenue is over. It's time to deal with the spending problem.”

MEGATRENDS – Periodic AP series beginning for Mon. papers, on the fact that within a generation (by 2043), whites will be a U.S. minority -- “The Tipping Point -- White Minority: Rise of Latino population blurs US racial lines,” by Hope Yen: “U.S. newcomers from Latin America and Asia … surpasses the pace of the last great immigration wave a century ago. That influx, from 1820 to 1920, brought in Irish, Germans, Italians and Jews from Europe and made the gateway of Ellis Island … An equal factor is today's aging white population, mostly baby boomers, whose coming wave of retirements will create a need for first- and second-generation immigrants to help take their place in the workforce. … More U.S. babies are now born to minorities than whites, a milestone reached last year. … More than 45 percent of students in kindergarten through 12th grade are minorities. The Census Bureau projects that in five years the number of nonwhite children will surpass 50 percent. …

“The District of Columbia, Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas have minority populations greater than 50 percent. By 2020, eight more states are projected to join the list: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey and New York. Latinos already outnumber whites in New Mexico; California will tip to a Latino plurality next year. … By 2039, racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the U.S. working-age population, helping to support a disproportionately elderly white population through Social Security and other payroll taxes. More than 1 in 4 people ages 18-64 will be Latino. …

“The white population, now at 197.8 million, is projected to peak at 200 million in 2024, before entering a steady decline in absolute numbers. Currently 63 percent of the U.S. population, the white share is expected to drop below 50 percent by 2043, when racial and ethnic minorities will collectively become a U.S. majority. Hispanics will drive most of the minority growth, due mostly to high birth rates, jumping in share from 17 percent to 26 percent.” http://bit.ly/ZAvx9U

ALEX CONANT, Sen. Marco Rubio’s press secretary, proposed to Caitlin Dunn, Sen. Rob Portman’s press secretary, at mile 25 of yesterday’s Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon, which they had trained for together. It was Caitlin’s first marathon, and Alex’s 10 th. On Minnesota Avenue (they met at Pawlenty presidential campaign HQ in Minnesota, Alex’s home state), he said he had to tie his shoe. Ignoring Caitlin’s nonplussed reaction, he dropped to one knee: “I don’t want to finish this race without you, and I don’t want to finish my life without you.” Alex had kept the ring in a fanny pack, the first he had ever used in a race. He had somehow convinced Caitlin that he needed the ridiculous look to store all their goo.

--CPAC WINNNERS AND LOSERS -- James Hohmann: “‘Stand with Rand’ was the event’s unofficial slogan … [OTHER WINNERS:] Marco Rubio: … [M]any activists still see him as an outsider, even though he’s been in D.C. for two years now and plans to move his family here. Pollster Whit Ayres called Rubio ‘the RGIII of politics’ … Chris Christie: Not getting invited to CPAC proved to be a blessing in disguise … [H]e might have taken flak for turning down the offer — or come and been booed. Instead, the snub puts helpful distance between Christie and the national GOP … The cold shoulder made him a sympathetic figure. … [Wisconsin Gov.] Scott Walker … got a huge, enthusiastic response. … Activists noticed that he spent Friday mingling among the masses – taking time to chat with college students — while other top-tier speakers avoided the give-and-take. … Ben Carson … Fox News carried the speech live. By contrast, it did not air any of Mitt Romney’s Friday appearance. …

“LOSERS … Jeb Bush: … [A] lecture he delivered at CPAC’s Reagan Dinner fell painfully flat. Eschewing a teleprompter, Bush read his 19-minute lecture from a black binder that felt like was trying to channel former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. Many in the audience thumbed through BlackBerrys while he talked. He received only a polite, scattered standing ovation. … Paul Ryan: Running as Romney’s No. 2 may have hurt Ryan’s brand more than it helped. … Ryan risks falling into the Jack Kemp trap … a ‘thought leader’ in the House like the man he once worked for, who was also a losing GOP vice presidential nominee. Some on the right wondered aloud here whether Ryan has it in him to run again for national office; the conventional wisdom is that he probably won’t run for president in 2016. Surprisingly, Ryan did not mention or even allude to last year’s election during his CPAC speech. …

“Bobby Jindal: … It was a sign of how much Jindal has been overshadowed by Paul and Rubio that throngs of attendees streamed out of the room after Romney spoke and before he took the stage an hour later. Romney himself notably omitted Jindal, who endorsed Rick Perry in the primaries, from a list of nine Republican governors that the party can learn from. Jindal … delivered an almost identical speech to the one he gave this January in Charlotte at the [RNC] winter meeting and, later, at a National Review conference in D.C. The governor’s advisers say that the message – embracing growth over austerity – is an important one that bears repeating. Jindal also recycled … jokes he delivered at last weekend’s Gridiron Dinner in Washington. ‘I see Eric Holder is with us,’ he said at one point, setting up a jest at the attorney general. Holder, obviously, was not at CPAC.” http://politi.co/110abUz

--Baltimore Sun p. 1, “Ben Carson says he will retire, hints at politics,” by Steve Kilar: “Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Dr. Ben Carson tested the political waters Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference … ‘In 106 days I will be retiring,’ said the 61-year-old Carson, Hopkins' longtime director of pediatric neurosurgery and a Baltimore County resident. … Grass-roots support for Carson, who entered the national political discourse last month by critiquing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul at the National Prayer Breakfast, could mean that Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, will not be the only Marylander mentioned as a potential candidate for the nation's highest office in 2016.” http://bsun.md/YhTbto

IF YOU READ ONLY ONE THING – Cover of The Economist (all global editions), “The American that works … the competitiveness surge that even Washington cannot stop … Luckily, dysfunction in Washington is only one side of America’s story”: “Recent numbers from the jobs market and the housing sector have been quite healthy. Consumer balance-sheets are being repaired. The stockmarket has just hit a record high. Some of this is cyclical: the private sector is rebounding from the crunch. But it also reflects the fact that, beyond the District of Columbia, the rest of the country is starting to tackle some of its deeper competitive problems. … America’s inventors are as busy as … ever, … and its entrepreneurs are seizing on their ideas with the same alacrity as always. Investment in research and development as a share of output recently matched the previous record, 2.9% of GDP, set at the height of the space race. …

“Although many countries possess big reserves of oil and gas trapped in impermeable rocks, American businesses worked out how to free that energy and then commercialised that technology at a rapid pace; the resulting ‘shale gale’ is now billowing the economy’s sails. Some of the money for fracking technology came from the federal government, but the shale revolution has largely happened despite Mr Obama and his tribe of green regulators. …

“While the federal government twiddles its thumbs, states and cities, which are much shorter of cash, are coming up with new ways to raise money for roads, bridges and schools. … The states are giving America’s schools their biggest overhaul in living memory. Forty-five of them are developing new curriculums. Tests are becoming more rigorous, and schools and teachers are at last being held accountable for results. Thirty-eight states have reformed teachers’ pay, tying it, in many instances, to their students’ exam results. … The ‘manufactured crises’ in Washington will possibly undermine the things that work. Better schools and cheaper energy are wonderful, but if Mr Obama and Congress do nothing to curb the unaffordable growth in health and pension spending, America will still be going broke.” http://econ.st/XhYztd

** A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices: 15 days until CMS's proposed new Medicare Advantage cuts become permanent. If nothing is done, 14 million seniors in Medicare Advantage get hit with an average of $50-$90 per month in higher costs and benefit cuts next year. View the new TV ad at: www.medicarechoices.org. **

THE BIG IDEA – DAVID LEONHARDT, N.Y. Times 1-col. lead, “BETTER COLLEGES FAILING TO LURE TALENTED POOR: QUALIFIED BUT UNAWARE -- Study Says Most Don’t Apply Despite Skills, Hurting Diversity”: “Only 34 percent of high-achieving high school seniors in the bottom fourth of income distribution attended any one of the country’s 238 most selective colleges, according to the analysis … by Caroline M. Hoxby of Stanford and Christopher Avery of Harvard, two longtime education researchers. Among top students in the highest income quartile, that figure was 78 percent. The findings underscore that elite public and private colleges, despite a stated desire to recruit an economically diverse group of students, have largely failed to do so. … The students often are unaware of the amount of financial aid available or simply do not consider a top college because they have never met someone who attended one … Among high-achieving, low-income students, 6 percent were black, 8 percent Latino, 15 percent Asian-American and 69 percent white.” http://nyti.ms/131r32i

SPOTTED: Eliot and Emily Spitzer, Eric Lewis, Cyrus Vance, and David Remnick, at a Lewis Baach law firm reception in New York on Wednesday, announcing the addition of Adam Kaufman and Arthur Middlemiss, former prosecutors for the New York District Attorney’s Office, to the D.C.-based international litigation firm. The veteran white-collar practitioners were brought to DANY by the legendary Robert Morgenthau in 1994 and will now run the firm’s N.Y.C. office, Lewis Baach Kaufman Middlemiss. http://prn.to/15dqzl0

HOW PORTMAN ANNOUNCEMENT PLAYED BACK HOME – Saturday front pages: The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, “Analysis: Move may position Portman as candidate open to change” … The Columbus Dispatch, “Gay rights: Portman’s shift mirrors many others’” … Dayton Daily News: “GOP split over Portman’s shift: Most top Ohio Republicans do not support gay marriage; nor does the party platform” … Cincinnati Enquirer, no story.

--UPDATE -- Senator Portman's office, on his precise position, which was updated in the Columbus Dispatch article that Playbook picked up: "Rob favors a democratic process at the state level to recognize same-sex couples’ ability to marry, and is concerned, as he states in the Dispatch Op-Ed, an 'expansive court ruling would run the risk of deepening current divisions rather than resolving them.'"

BUSINESSWATCH – Wall Street Journal “Weekend Interview”: “Three Years After the Spill, BP Gets Bullish: BP CEO Bob Dudley explains why it is investing in the U.S. despite its legal woes, and why young women should become petroleum engineers,” by “Business World” columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr., in Houston: “Dudley is bullish on oil exploration in the fracking age, the ultra-deepwater age, the oil-sands age. … BP, since the spill, has become a much more American company. Its CEO is American, born in Queens, and grew up in Mississippi and Illinois. While some advised the company to remove its assets as far as possible from the U.S. judicial system, BP did the opposite. It doubled down on the risks and rewards of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, committing to spend an average $4 billion a year for the next decade. The company is spending billions and hiring thousands to upgrade its remaining ‘northern tier’ refineries in Indiana, Ohio and Washington state to handle a gush of heavy crude from Canada's tar sands. BP has started drilling in Ohio's Utica shale. …

“Dudley believes the promise extends down the eastern coast of the U.S. The reason is plate tectonics. ‘People have realized that the source rocks, which is where hydrocarbons are generated, on the western Atlantic side are the same as on the eastern.’ Oil in offshore Angola has meant oil in offshore Brazil; oil off Northern Europe likely means oil off the eastern shores of North America. But there's a problem. These opportunities compete with claimants who want to keep milking the spill. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was the key holdout from a settlement that would have made the current trial unnecessary. … ‘We've settled a lot,’ says Mr. Dudley, ticking off agreements with federal agencies, prosecutors and private litigants. ‘I think we're known as a company that's looking for a reasonable settlement. But if the demands are not tethered in reality, we'll go through the court system.’ … Dudley delivers all this without a trace of angst or anger.” Free linkhttp://on.wsj.com/103E9bo

WEEKEND WEDDINGS:

JAY ZEIDMAN, Maverick PAC co-chairman, and ANAT KAUFMAN, who were married in Jerusalem on Dec. 12 at a private ceremony in the presence of their family, had a marriage blessing ceremony and reception last night in Houston. At the neoclassical, Corinthian, the processional was as long as a Texas driveway, including the father of the groom, the Honorable Fred Zeidman (in boots with his initials), and Kay Zeidman, and groomsmen Mark Zeidman, Scott Arogeti, Neal Jungblut, Jeremy Katz, Rob Saliterman, Scott Sendek and Chris Tanner.A

DAVIS WHITE and ANNA RICHARDSON, by NYT’s Margaux Laskey: “Anna Gabriella Richardson and Davis Cochrane White were married Saturday at the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin in San Francisco. … The couple both work for branches of Google, where they met in December 2010 shortly after each had relocated to California from the East Coast. She is a communications manager in San Bruno for the company’s YouTube video unit; he is a manager on the corporate communications team at Google in Mountain View. The bride, 33, graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and received a master’s in political sociology from the London School of Economics. She is a daughter of Josephine D’Amato Richardson and Bill B. Richardson, who live and work in Whitesburg, Ky. The bride’s father has an architecture firm, and her mother owns the Courthouse Cafe. The groom, 32, graduated from Washington and Lee University. He is a son of Lyda Shaw White of Birmingham, Ala., and the late Jere F. White Jr. The groom’s father was a founding partner in the Birmingham law firm Lightfoot, Franklin & White.” With pichttp://nyti.ms/YHoqND

--POOL REPORT: “A wonderful, small wedding weekend for Davis White (formerly of Bush and McCain, now of Google) and Anna Richardson (formerly of Miramax Films, now of YouTube/Google). Guests included Tom Yielding, Ryan Connolly, Jason Recher, Jill Hazelbaker, Andrea Saul and others from five countries and 12 states. Most were from Alabama and Kentucky, giving a Southern flair that San Fran is not accustomed to, and could use more of!

“Reception hosted by Bill and Josephine Richardson was at the historic Presidio Social Club, with amazing pies in lieu of cake. Lyda White hosted the rehearsal dinner at Spruce, with an open mic night that included references to the groom forming a ‘flying wedge’ with other advance teammates to break through security during a notorious APEC summit in Chile. Rivalries of the weekend included Wildcats vs. Roll Tide, liberal vs. conservative, and Google vs. YouTube -- proving that opposites attract, and that this beautiful love between Davis and Anna is here to stay.”

** A message from the Coalition for Medicare Choices: In just 15 days, CMS's proposed new Medicare Advantage cuts become permanent. Vulnerable seniors will pay more, get less and lose choices. If the cuts become permanent, the average senior will get hit with $50-$90 a month in higher costs and benefit cuts next year. Many seniors will lose their Medicare Advantage plan altogether. According to an independent analysis, "Virtually all of the 14.1 million Medicare beneficiaries are likely to be affected by these changes, either through increased premiums, reduced benefits, or plan exits from local markets." Time is running out. Take action now to stop the proposed new Medicare Advantage cuts. View the new TV ad at: www.medicarechoices.org. **

****** A message from UnitedHealth Group: What does it take to create a modern, high-performing, simpler health care system? Expanding access to care through proven state-based coverage and employer-sponsored insurance. Making health care more affordable with consumer-directed care and value-based payments. Supporting and modernizing Medicare to meet the complex health challenges of America’s seniors. And reinvesting in health to support research and innovation. Learn more about these ideas at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com ******

Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.